Playwright Martin McDonagh is writer and director of this film about a mobster (Ralph Fiennes) who, after a heinous murder, orders his two Irish hit men (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) to go into hiding in the medieval Belgian city -- an experience that proves transformative for both of them. Though the finely acted tragicomedy has several extremely violent sequences and myriad other sordid elements, necessitating the film's highly restrictive classification, McDonagh's theme of the futility of cyclical violence is powerfully conveyed, while the intermittent conversations between the two criminals about the meaning of life and other spiritual matters provide further texture. Pervasive rough language and some profanity, violence with bloodshed, murder and suicide, killing of a priest, drug use, prostitution, frank sexual talk, a nongraphic sexual encounter and ethnic slurs. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.